Bud Shark wanted attention in 2010 but certainly not the kind he received. It was supposed to be a year that celebrated his influence, but he instead found himself embroiled in controversy and the target of nasty attacks.

The story actually starts back in 2009 when the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver honored him with an exhibition of original woodcuts and lithographs that he had produced since 1975 in collaboration with 10 nationally known artists. As one of the best-known master printers in the country, Shark provides technical advice and support and all the necessary equipment at Shark's Ink, his studio in the foothills outside Lyons.

The show, followed by a handsomely realized 228- page catalog published at the end of 2009, was the most important survey of Shark's accomplishments to date.

But that career high turned into a horrible low earlier this year, when the exhibition traveled to the Loveland Museum/Gallery.

After protests against the inclusion of a print by Enrique Chagoya that some people saw as blasphemous, Kathleen Folden, a Montana truck driver, broke the piece from its case in October and destroyed it. A month later, she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal mischief.

The incident triggered a sometimes ugly maelstrom of controversy, including death threats against the artist, who teaches at Stanford University.

"That was certainly something I'd never experienced before, and I hope I never experience again," Shark said.

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But he has refused to be cowed. Right before the attack, he and Chagoya finished work on a new sociopolitically tinged lithograph, "Illegal Alien's Guide to Somewhere Over the Rainbow," and it was put on sale earlier this month.

"It wasn't in any way a response to what happened — it was done before — but we have to move on," Shark said, "and I think it's a wonderful print and we went ahead and released it and showed it in New York in November."

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